Best Vampire Movie Picks by Steve Niles

There are no additions to LA Times Critics' Choice or Also Recommended movies today, but there was an interesting list of best vampire movies of all time by Steve Niles who co-authored the "30 Days of Night" novels that inspired the recently released film.

Here are Nile's picks from down the dark passage of movie time with the actor who played the vampire in the movie listed first (go here for the complete LA Times Calendar Live article):

• Max Schreck, "Nosferatu" (1922)
  Schreck is the German word for "terror" -- and completely fitting for the Berlin-born actor in F.W. Murnau's silent classic. "There is nothing like it, it's so scary and so powerful . . . A lot of people thought he really was a vampire."



• Willem Dafoe, "Shadow of the Vampire" (2000)
  Almost 80 years after "Nosferatu," Schreck was brought back to life on screen by Dafoe in this quirky film that posits the idea that Schreck was indeed a member of the undead. The dark comedy earned Dafoe an Academy Award nomination.
  


• Bela Lugosi, "Dracula" (1931)
  "He has to be at the top of any list, of course," Nile said. "He brought Dracula to the whole world. And just the fact that when he died he was buried in his Dracula cape . . ."
  


• Klaus Kinski, "Nosferatu the Vampyre" (1979)
  "Shot for shot, this is just the most beautiful vampire movie...one of the famed collaborations between director Werner Herzog and his volatile on-screen muse Kinski.
  


• Jack Palance "Dracula" (1973)
  "Palance was real physical, he made Dracula scary again. . . . He showed Dracula wasn't just about perfectly coiffed hair, like Langella."
  


• William Marshall, "Blacula" (1972)
  Marshall...really made his mark as Mamuwalde, the African prince bitten by Dracula in the 1700s and on the loose in the groovy streets of 1970s L.A. Niles said he has no reservations about putting the blaxploitation melodrama on his list: Being a horror fan means accepting a certain measure of schlock. "And I had a 'Blacula' poster on my wall for years too."
  


• Tom Cruise, "Interview With the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles" (1994)
  "I thought (Cruise) was fantastic, he completely pulled it off. I wasn't a big fan though of Brad Pitt in the movie."
  


• Reggie Nalder, "Salem's Lot" (1979)
  "This might be my favorite," Niles said. "For all my complaining that vampires on screen are usually not really very scary, this is a huge exception.
  


• Barry Atwater, "The Night Stalker" (1972)
  This is probably the most obscure entry on this list, but Niles said it's an essential one. "This is one of the best vampires ever, one that really sticks with me. He had red eyes, he was tall and lanky and almost ghoulish. What was so great.
  

Lars and the Real Girl

If you just read the synopsis of this movie, you'd no doubt give it a pass. However, the LA Area critics all seemed to agree on the various radio and TV shows this past Thursday and Friday that this is a movie worth seeing. Kenneth Turan of the LA Times gives it a "Critics' Choice Award" and says of "Lars and the Real Girl":

This is a Frank Capra-style fable, a throwback tribute to the joys of friendship and community... Taking one of the most salacious items modern culture can provide as their centerpiece, the filmmakers have created the sweetest, most innocent, most completely enjoyable movie around.

Synopsis:

Gosling stars as Lars Lindstrom, a lovable introvert whose emotional baggage has kept him from fully embracing life. After years of what is almost solitude, he invites Bianca, a friend he met on the Internet to visit him. He introduces Bianca to his brother Gus (Paul Schneider) and his wife Karen (Emily Mortimer) and they are stunned. They don't know what to say to Lars or Bianca – because she is a life-size doll, not a real person and he is treating her as though she is alive. They consult the family doctor Dagmar (Patricia Clarkson) who explains this is a delusion he's created – for what reason she doesn't yet know but they should all go along with it. What follows is an emotional journey for Lars and the people around him.

Opened October 12, 2007
1 hr. 46 min.
PG-13
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Emily Mortimer, Paul Schneider, Patricia Clarkson, Kelli Garner, Nancy Beatty, Karen Robinson
Director: Craig Gillespie
Genre: Romantic Comedy, Comedy Drama, Psychological Drama Ryan

Michael Clayton

I'm left wondering why Kenneth Turan didn't give "Michael Clayton" an LA Times Critics Choice medallion as he writes so enthusiastically of the directorial debut of Tony Gilroy:

After what must seem like a lifetime of writing screenplays for other people to direct, Tony Gilroy has come out from behind the curtain. With the George Clooney-starring "Michael Clayton," he's not only saved his best script for himself, he's also turned out a smart and suspenseful legal thriller that comes completely alive on-screen.

Watching this film makes you feel that Gilroy, best known for writing credits on all three "Bourne" films, has poured the energy pent up during a decade and a half in Hollywood into this strong and confident directorial debut about desperate men searching for redemption in a cold and ruthless world.

Read Kenneth Turan's full review of Michael Clayton

Synopsis:

Former prosecutor Michael Clayton (George Clooney) works as a ''fixer'' at the corporate law firm of Kenner, Bach & Ledeen, and takes care of his employers' dirty work. Clayton cleans up clients' messes, handling anything from hit-and-runs and damaging stories in the press to shoplifting wives and crooked politicians. Though burned out and discontented in his job, Clayton is inextricably tied to the firm. At the agrochemical company U/North, the career of in-house chief counsel Karen Crowder rests on the settlement of the suit that Kenner, Bach & Ledeen is leading to a seemingly successful conclusion. When the firm's top litigator, the brilliant Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson), has an apparent breakdown and tries to sabotage the entire case, Marty Bach sends Michael Clayton to tackle this unprecedented disaster and, in doing so, Clayton comes face to face with the reality of who he has become.

Opened October 5, 2007
2 hr. 0 min.
R - language including some sexual dialogue
Cast: George Clooney, Tom Wilkinson, Tilda Swinton, Sydney Pollack, Michael O'Keefe
Director: Tony Gilroy
Genre: Thriller, Paranoid Thriller


Times and tickets online at Fandango

Lust, Caution

Kenneth Turan writing for the LA Times says of "Lust, Caution":

...an unapologetic wartime melodrama, centering as it does on spies, assassination plots, adultery and serveral kids of betrayal in Japanese occupied China during World War II.

Synopsis: The World War II Japanese occupation of Shanghai in 1942 continues in force. Mrs. Mak walks into a café, places a call, and then sits and waits. She remembers how her story began in 1938 China. She is not in fact Mrs. Mak, but shy Wong Chia Chi (Tang Wei).

With WWII underway, Wong has been left behind by her father, who has escaped to England. As a freshman at university, she meets fellow student Kuang Yu Min (Wang Leehom). He convenes a core group of students to carry out a radical and ambitious plan to assassinate a top Japanese collaborator, Mr. Yee (Tony Leung). Each student has a part to play; Wong will be Mrs. Mak, who will gain Yee’s trust by befriending his wife and then draw the man into an affair.
An unexpected fatal twist spurs her to flee. Shanghai, 1941. Kuang re-enters her life. Now part of the organized resistance, he enlists her to again become Mrs. Mak in a revival of the plot to kill Yee.

Release Date" September 2007
2 hr. 38 min.
Rated NC-17 - some explicit sexuality
Cast: Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Tang Wei, Joan Chen, Wang Lee Hom, Anupam Kher
Director: Ang Lee
Genre: Period Film, Erotic Drama, Unglamorized Spy Film, Thriller

Show times and locations for Lust, Caution at Fandango

Jindabyne Released on DVD

Jindbyne which was featured in this post back in April is now available on DVD.

Great World of Sound

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer says of "Great World of Sound":

This is a country where everyone is convinced they have undiscovered talent, but what's truly widespread is the talent to connive and the willingness to be taken in. Witness "Great World of Sound," an involving, offbeat and truly unusual American independent film.

Enthusiastically received at Sundance, "Great World" is an intriguing look at our obsession with being successful and famous, at the deals we make that we fool ourselves aren't really with the devil. And it reveals a world of musical strivers so unnerving it makes the run-up to "American Idol" look like tryouts for the Metropolitan Opera.

Full review of Great World of Sound by Kenneth Turan

Martin (Pat Healy) answers an ad to train as a record producer, where he's excited by the prospect of signing undiscovered artists. The company, called Great World of Sound, partners shy, unassuming Martin with the gregarious Clarence (Kene Holliday) and sends them on the road, visiting southern towns where the company has placed newspaper ads and turning motels into makeshift audition studios. Though an unlikely duo, they sign more acts than anyone else at the company. But when Martin takes a special interest in a young girl’s “New National Anthem,” putting up his own money and following her progress, he discovers that something’s amiss with the enterprise. As things threaten to unravel, he’s forced to weigh his nagging conscience against both his loyalty to Clarence and his own financial ruin.

Released: September 2007
Run Time: 1 hr. 46 min.
Rated R
Cast: Pat Healy, Kene Holliday, Robert Longstreet, Rebecca Mader
Director: Craig Zobel
Genre: Road Movie, Message Movie, Buddy Film, Drama

Show times and locations for Great World of Sound at Fandango.com